The Avengers is, without question, the best superhero movie. (In my opinion, anyway.) It had heart, sentiment, flashy set pieces, humor, a sense of danger and suspense, characters who grew and evolved; basically, everything fans love from comics thrown up on the big, silver screen. The Avengers is the bar all superhero movies since have been measured against. So… how will its sequel, The Avengers: Age of Ultron stack up?

From the title alone and the dozens of rumors floating around – not as many as BvS, but still – we can garner Ultron will be a major force in the sequel. The super intelligent automaton originally created by Hank Pym (who’s being played by none other than Michael freakin’ Douglas!) grew too smart for its britches, rebelled and went all evil. And as we’ll be meeting Pym in Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man one can only assume hints of Ultron’s creation will be included, making the villain for Avengers 2 all the more personal when one of their own is responsible.

With that in mind, Scarlett Johansson‘s recent comments in an interview with Parade fit with The Avengers having a harder time the second time around,

Oh boy! Well, we can expect the Avengers. Joss [Whedon], again, is back, wrote the script, and is directing. I think the script is dark and it’s dry, it’s got this amazing one-liner, glass-cutting sense of humor. Obviously the script is very cerebral. It doesn’t lose that exciting comic book aspect that people enjoyed in the first film, but it’s smart and it feels like the next installment. It doesn’t feel like a rehashing, it feels like these characters are moving forward, plotlines are moving forward. It’s deep and I think that’s why people really respond to the Marvel universe, because the films are fun and exciting and have all that flashy stuff, but there’s a gravity to them. People can expect that gravity this time around.

As long as none of the fun and humor are sapped to make room for more grit and grime, I’m all right with this. Just like we saw with Tony Stark in Iron Man 3, the Battle of New York should still weigh heavily on his Avengers teammates. Add to that a villain created by one of their own and you’ve got a good recipe for angst.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is expected to release May 1st, 2015. What do you think of the sequel being darker than the original? Afraid it’ll become too gritty à la Christopher Nolan?

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